Welcome to the 2024 Leap Day installment! No attempt to cover one per year, just a limited random selection this time.
1796, Albany, New York, stampless folded letter rated at 17 cents (collect) for 200-250 miles.

1844, Tallahassee, Florida Territory, sfl rated at 25 cents (collect) for more than 400 miles. The rate of folded letters is based "per sheet". Having lots of drafts (similar to checks) to mail, the sender had the blank form printed on a large sheet which doubled as the folded letter at the *single* letter rate. The draft/check portion is typically clipped from these letters by the recipient and run through the banking system, but in this case was left intact with endorsement on the reverse.


1844, Ithaca, New York, sfl rated at 18-3/4 (pre-paid) for 150-40 miles.

1856, Washington, DC, free frank of Robert J. Atkinson while 3rd Auditor of the Treasury.

1864, Charleston, South Carolina, Confederate States #11. The only Leap Day during the civil war.

1872, Washington, DC, free frank of Jackson Orr, Representative from Iowa. Year dates in the post civil war years are often hard to determine, but the enclosed letter dates this cover nicely.

1892, Rochester, New York, E2 stamp on special delivery cover.

1896, New York, NY, two Leap Day transit markings on reverse side of a letter from Boston, through the main NYC office at 1am to Station H at 4am.

1904, Decatur, Illinois, Barr-Fyke machine cancel on UX18 postal card. One of the less-common machines of this era.

1904, Sebago Lake, Maine, top portion of full monthly "Carriers Trip Report" for February 1904, with Leap Day R.F.D. postmark at the top.

1904, New York, NY, uncommon "PAID ALL" International Postal Supply Company machine dial as a receiving mark on a postcard from France to Gloucester, Massachusetts.

1908, Washington, DC, 2 cent battleship revenue stamp used illegally (and successfully) on letter to Senator Chauncey M. DePew.

1908, Durant, Oklahoma, Doremus "RECEIVED" machine cancel postmark on back of cover.

1924, Green Bay, Station A, Wisconsin, American flag machine cancel with unusual redundant "Station A" in the dial and flag.

1928, Albany, New York, Charles Lindbergh visited Albany on February 29, 1928 to lobby the state legislature. Philatelic cover with two additional seals showing Lindbergh and his mother produced for the American Booklovers Society.

1932, Rochester, New York, home of the Multipost Company, which made several different mailing machines. Cover with privately-applied Multipost Combi-Mailer cancel on machine-applied precanceled coil stamp.

1944, New York, NY, Prisoner of War letter sheet sent from German POW held at Camp Mexia, in Mexia, Texas. Examined and postmarked in New York City on February 29, 1944 on its way to Germany.

1944, Ford City, Pennsylvania, advertising meter from the Eljer Company showing a toilet!


1952, Dan N. Wilkinson's personal R.P.O. clerk handstamp along the El Paso & Los Angeles, E.D. (eastern division) on a facing slip. Leap Day 1952 fell on a Sunday. Philatelic.

1960, Cincinnati, Ohio, Transfer Clerk R.M.S., Universal Model K hand-driven machine cancel applied at the railroad station.
